


Lapse

by IohannaFacTotum



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:58:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IohannaFacTotum/pseuds/IohannaFacTotum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just when it seems that humanity is able to take a bold and noble step forward with the help of Eren Jaeger, the tables turn and Lance Corporal Levi witnesses the fatal consequences of placing his trust and even hope in such an unstable savior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lapse

It was like everything else that Levi had seen before, and yet so much worse.

The corporal prided himself in his ability to stay calm or, more accurately, his _inability_ to panic and make a fool of himself. It wasn't out of the ordinary for formation to break and for chaos to ensue, and even then he had a knack for following the best course of action and minimizing casualties. Whether it was a 15-meter class Aberrant or a stubborn horse, Levi was more than capable of taking control of the situation and pushing forward.

This time was frighteningly different.

First, there was shouting, screaming. Levi turned to look over his shoulder and saw horses scattering, some of them still mounted. Then, steam - searing hot steam enveloping him and blinding him, leaving only one indication of the situation--

A deafening, bone-chilling howl.

_Jaeger…_

At first, there wasn’t much to make of it. Perhaps Eren had instigated the transformation himself with self-harm, or maybe he had simply lost control.

Levi scanned the surrounding area to the best of his ability, looking for a tree or some other vantage point, but he saw nothing besides open, grassy plains. As the steam cleared and more of his comrades returned to his field of vision, so did a pair of bright green eyes, sunken into a face split with a terrifying grimace that stretched from one pointed ear to another.

Levi’s mind jumped first to the most likely cause of Eren's transformation. He cast his eyes over the plains, searching for signs of other titans, particularly those dangerous enough that they might provoke Eren. However, the only things moving on the landscape were uneasy horses, uneasy soldiers, and Eren himself.

Everyone, Levi included, watched with baited breath as Eren’s teeth parted and he exhaled, billowing smoke into the air. There was silence. Levi turned his horse and eased it in Jaeger’s direction. The titan didn’t seem to notice. Still a good distance away, Levi stopped next to one of the other troops, Reiner, and murmured, “What happened?”

Reiner didn’t take his eyes off of Eren’s face. “Not a clue, sir. He turned out of nowhere…”

At the sound of the voices, Eren’s bright eyes shifted from the horizon to the ground, seeming to notice his friends and comrades there for the first time. He stared at them, baring his frightening grin, and knelt down on one knee, finally extending one long, muscular arm.

“Get back! _Get back!_ ” Levi barked, connecting empty hilts to two new steel blades. The soldiers scattered, steering and urging their horses in all directions as quickly as they could. They all stopped and turned when a scream pierced the air.

Sticking out of Eren’s fist from the waist up like a twig in the fingers of a child was one of the newer additions to the squad from the 104th trainee corps.

“Sasha!” Connie cried out, ripping his blades from their holsters. Levi moved to stop him, but from the corner of his eye he saw Sasha, struggling against Eren’s immense strength and trying desperately to free herself or her swords as Eren brought her close to his face and examined her, piercing her with those devilish eyes.

Even from the ground, Levi could see that she was shaking. He tensed, shifting in his saddle. Should he attempt to free Sasha? Should he interfere and risk a fatal, panicked or enraged reaction from Eren? He could hear her voice, faint and broken from so far above him, and assumed that she was speaking to Eren, trying to talk him down. Levi flexed his fingers and shifted his weight again, ready to spring from his horse. For once, he realized with disgust, he was afraid. Afraid for Sasha, afraid for Connie, Jean, Reiner, Armin, all of them. Afraid of what the wrong move could mean for Eren and, ultimately, for humanity and it's frail, frightful baby steps for the first time in more than a century.

After a moment of scrutiny, Eren parted his teeth, revealing a gaping darkness broken only by a slick pink tongue.

“Eren…? Eren!” Sasha squealed, her cries becoming more desperate as Eren brought her closer to that black chasm radiating heat and moisture. “ _Eren! EREN, NO!_ ”

“Switch to 3D maneuver!” Levi snapped. “Distract him! Ackerman, _sever that hand!_ ” He was airborne before he’d finished the command, with Mikasa not far behind, using Eren’s colossal body and a quick release of pressurized gas to propel himself above the creature. He could see others doing the same, with the titan being the only thing large enough to use as leverage.

For a sickening moment as he flew past Eren’s head, Levi met Sasha’s eyes, brimming with tears as she shrieked and pleaded and struggled. He watched the top half of Sasha’s writhing, screaming form disappear between those dreadful teeth. He felt his blood run cold and the color drain from his face.

There was a stomach-turning crunch, cries from other soldiers, a sleek _shick!_ as Mikasa’s blade sliced through Eren’s wrist only a moment too late. The beast roared and swatted her out of the air, snatching Jean out of it when he dove down to catch her. In the same swift motion, he tossed Jean up above his head and opened his teeth. With a yell, Jean disappeared from sight and a lump slid down Eren’s throat. The monster opened its mouth and sighed, as if he were back in the mess hall behind the walls, as if he had just flicked a grain of rice into the air and caught it in response to some childish game.

Levi’s eyes lit with a fearful and angry fire as he plunged towards his target. He gritted his teeth and came down on Eren’s neck with both blades hard enough to snap his weapons clean in half and sever a chunk much too large from the tender meat.

The screaming monster jerked forward, falling face first into the grass as the flesh and muscle melted from its bones and steam rose from the remains.

Levi landed unsteadily on its back, shaking and unable to breathe as his subordinates returned to their horses. Some, like Connie, were still screaming Sasha’s name. Mikasa climbed the massive and quickly deteriorating shoulder to the back of Eren’s neck.

The body was deteriorating at an alarming pace, the ribs and hip bones emerging rapidly. As the lower abdomen rotted away, steaming red liquid poured into the grass and a hand emerged. Jean, alive and obviously shaken, covered in blood that did not appear to be his own, clawed his way from underneath the body. He knelt in the grass, shaking and heaving and gasping for air. Still pinned under the rotting meat and barely visible was a small, feminine arm.

Levi noticed that there was blood still pouring out of the titan’s body from the cut he had made, although the steam was almost gone.

_Oh God…_

He ran up the spine, meeting Mikasa at the nape of the neck, and reached in to dig the boy out of the brute.

_So much blood…_

Levi had just laid hands on Eren’s body when shriek after pain-riddled shriek, muffled by what was left of the titan form, ripped from his mouth. It only took seconds for them to remove him, and by then, the pale, bleeding boy was already unconscious again.

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't even know, I just wanted to see Eren eating people. :I
> 
> I'm planning on writing another chapter or two of this, I think. Feedback appreciated and desperately wanted!


End file.
